This guide from Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP(R)) covers safeguards that can be implemented in hospitality businesses today, tips on how to continuously improve security and data regulation compliance.

HFTP GDPR Guidelines: Privacy Policies for Hotels

This document offers points to consider in the development of a hotel’s privacy policy. In view of the multiple organisational and legal structures under which hotels operate, as well as the complexity of the third party landscape that may be part of the complete guest experience, this document serves as a guideline only.

HFTP GDPR Guidelines: Hospitality Guest Registration Cards

This document offers recommendations for guest information collection on the guest registration card along with consent for use. It can be used as a guideline for loyalty cards, health data, export of data outside of the EU, privacy policies and direct marketing.

You're tired after a long day of travelling, and all you want is to do is put down your bags and kick off your shoes in your room. You walk into your hotel and you're greeted by a growing line of travellers waiting to check in while the front desk juggles the phones.

There are lots of brands that don’t use social media properly, and the world of hotels is no different. Of course, there are exceptions. Marriott’s new brand of hotels, Moxy, have clearly ranked social as highly important. Further, Four Seasons employ a social media ‘guru’ in each hotel, and reportedly spend 50% of their marketing budget on social media – all of which is evident in their results. Let’s take a look at how and why so many hotels don’t utilise social media (without naming and shaming!).

IDeaS Revenue Solutions, the leading provider of revenue management software and advisory services, announced today their reformed relationship as the revenue management technology provider of choice for Hong Kong’s upscale and award-winning Hotel ICON.

In a B2B environment, lack of control over how your product is sold to the consumer is one of the biggest challenges. If you’re a hotel supplier, your revenue is dependent on your distributors’ sales. If they don’t sell your inventory, you don’t make money.
The challenge is that your influence on the way distributors sell your product is minimal to non-existent, particularly when it comes to controlling whether your inventory is consistently and accurately displayed to the consumer.

The GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) replaces the 1995 EU Data Protection Directive and is the most significant piece of European data protection legislation to be introduced in the last 20 years. In short, the regulations are centred around protecting an individual’s rights regarding the collection and processing of their personal data, across Europe.

One of the biggest challenges for hotels and established brands in the travel sector in recent years has been the growth of online travel agents (OTAs) and metasearch aggregators. They’ve taken a huge slice of market share and positioned themselves at the forefront of customers’ minds. If you’re an accommodation provider, having more places that offer your product sounds like a good thing. But many companies now have to rely on OTAs to move their inventory, while taking a big slice of margin.

In a recent article, serial entrepreneur Luke Johnson compared entrepreneurs to homebuyers: there are those that like to build their own houses as opposed to renovating existing properties. Doing it all from scratch is, in many ways, a harder and riskier process – but it allows you to design a house exactly the way you want it. The same can be said for hoteliers – some like to start a hotel brand by wiping the slate clean, while others prefer to breathe new life into an old, tired brand. Whether you’re working with a new or old brand, visually communicating your brand concept to your guests is key.

In a competitive market, getting noticed is the biggest challenge for small and mid-sized independent hoteliers. The Internet is flooded with different types of hotels and everyone’s in pursuit of the top spot! Hotel remarketing is one of the most effective strategies you can use to grab the attention and convert the online user into a customer. As a hotelier, you might have already used different components of marketing right from social media to SEO. However, remarketing for hotels is important to create targeted advertising. Does this sound too complex? Let us simplify it for you!

For businesses of all sizes, the move of people from screen to voice search and interactions may seem a long way in the future – however, when two (if not all) of the big four of Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple are investing billions in the technology that underpins the behaviour then there is only one ‘direction of travel’.

The heat is always on hoteliers to increase profitability. From acquiring new customers to driving repeat business and loyalty, making the right operational decisions and running a hotel with optimal efficiency is an ongoing challenge for hotel executives. However, with increased focus on the best ways to drive total-hotel profitability, what exactly does the industry’s C-suite need to know about revenue strategy and profit optimization today?

There was a time when Artificial Intelligence (AI) was the domain of Hollywood movies, a technology deemed too futuristic for day-to-day use. Then came Alexa, Siri and the smart home revolution. AI and machine learning are now transforming the way businesses operate and playing an increasing role in B2C interaction. This is true of all industries, but it’s growing impact on hospitality and travel is particularly noteworthy.

Starting today, Hotelchamp is introducing the ability for hoteliers to manage all their marketing activity through the company’s online platform. As well as being the control centre for Hotelchamp’s signature website guest journey and conversion boosting solution, the platform also acts as a single hub through which hoteliers can manage an extensive range of other online activities. Retargeting, review management, competitor &amp; OTA rate-shopping, metasearch advertising, and in-depth visitor analysis technology can now all be coordinated through the singular Hotelchamp platform – a significant step forward in Hotelchamp’s mission to provide the definitive Marketing Platform for Hotels.

Throwing open its doors on the 1st of May to its first of five new, Blue Explorers Resorts on the island of Gran Canaria. its founders, David Clivet, Greg Wixted and Caroline Jackson are committed to sustainability and their obligation to the environment, and the community. Blue Explorers ResortThrough careful consideration of the effects that operating systems, materials, and purchasing policies have on the environment, the business will continually develop new initiatives and procedures to minimise its ecological impact that support the preservation of nature and cultural heritage, and enhancing social and economic benefits to local communities in destinations where Blue Explorers Resorts operates.

These days you read a lot about Millennials. Millennials are born between the early 1980’s and the mid-1990’s and make a very interesting target group for you as a hotelier. Why? Because Millennials are young professionals, adventurous and both willing and able to travel. They are very into social media and sharing the fun things they get up to in their free time. And that’s where your opportunities as a hotelier come in: you can make sure your hotel, apartment or B&amp;B gets featured on their feeds so it will be shared by many and liked by even more. With this, you can build a strong online community for your hotel, apartment or B&amp;B. As Millennials – and every other customer for that matter – value these word-of-digital-mouth recommendations and see this as their number one source of reliable information your online reputation matters.

ALICE, the hospitality industry’s leading operations platform, partnered with Forbes Travel Guide during their annual Luxury Summit, to create the event’s first text messaging-powered concierge service. By offering the Summit’s hundreds of attendees concierge service at the push of a button, ALICE demonstrated just how convenient and compelling text messaging with hotel staff is as a way to deliver a superior guest experience.

Some hotel brands are phenomenal with Social Media Marketing. They use every trick in the book brilliantly and see significant traffic and new reservations as a result. Many, however, make mistakes with their Social Media that not only hinder sales but conveys
their brand in a poor light. Here are 3 common mistakes Hotels make that you need to avoid.

I hope, by the end of this piece - I can prove to you that methods that are over two thousand years old are alive and well in todays digital space and were used in the recent Cambridge Analytica and Facebook revelations. I also hope I can turn your mind to highlighting that the same The post The 2,000 Year Old Cambridge Analytica Algorithm Alive &amp; Well In Hospitality appeared first on Hotel Speak.

Triptease's latest report investigates the most overused term in digital marketing - A/B testing. As A/B test providers to some of the world's largest hotel groups, Triptease are uniquely poised to comment on the myths and misconceptions surrounding split-traffic testing. Spotlight on... A/B testing sets the record straight on why independent hotels are unlikely to The post A Spotlight On A/B Testing For Hotels [FREE REPORT] appeared first on Hotel Speak.

In the online travel world competition is fierce. Offering the best service and constantly being up-to-date with the newest technological changes is imperative for any online travel agency's (OTA) success. But how can you really accomplish this? What can you implement that will increase your success? What will make you better than your competition? What The post How To Make Your Online Travel Agency More Successful appeared first on Hotel Speak.

The world is becoming more and more automated in all aspects, and this trend will continue. Automation has two main functions. The first is that it makes life easier for everyone. And secondly, and the most important for businesses, is that it helps increase revenue. With this in mind it raises the question: Why are hotels so awfully slow at adapting new technologies?

It’s a competitive market out there and with the recent booms in the economy, people are always on the lookout for new travel, entertainment, and leisure experiences. While this is great news for hotels, restaurants, and casinos, it sure can be a challenge trying to keep up with the demand. So how do you ensure your customers have great experiences to keep them coming back? It’s all about providing an enjoyable customer experience.

GetGuided is on a mission to help everyone get more out of every business trip. Since our mission unsurprisingly led us to the Business Travel Show (#BTS) in London, Europe’s largest specialised event for business travel professionals, we decided to take the opportunity to do some totally unscientific but seriously fun research. So, we asked 165 attendees one simple question.

Hospitality is a way of receiving and entertaining guests with kindness and generosity, while mobile marketing connects you to your guests. Therefore, the hospitality industry and mobile marketing fit perfectly together. Mobile marketing is a customer-oriented way to promote your hotel, cruise liner, restaurant, travel agency or whatever hospitality niche you may be in.

Instead of providing a basic update on industry trends, the EyeforTravel Summit 2018 gives you leadership skills, access to C-level strategists, and unparalleled deal-making potential.
Every day a new acquisition happens, and the fact that Google and Amazon exist has given this event particularly strong attention. It’s a senior and fiery enough event for partnerships and deals to happen that hack the system.

Yet again, Facebook has changed their algorithm to the dismay of us Social Marketers and, in particular, to those in the hotel industry relying on Facebook for increased traffic and bookings. Rather than give up on Facebook and putting all your eggs into another basket (probably Instagram), there are a few changes to make to your Facebook strategy
which will make the algorithmic change less concerning.